Rabbi Schneider - The Mystery of the Supernatural
You and I cannot personally experience directly the love of God unless supernaturally the Spiri imparts the revelation of the Father's love to us. I know that many of you that are connected to my ministry really are connected to how I teach the Word of God line by line. And that's what I'm grounded in. And that's from the place of my being saved was from the word of God, the written word of God. But you know what? We also need to be walking by the supernatural life of God's Spirit. Our walk with the Lord should be made up of a combination of the written word and the Spirit. There should be a marriage, beloved one, of the word of God and the Spirit of God at work in our life.
Remember Jesus said, He said, "The words that I speak to you..." Listen now. He said, "The words..." There's that word "words". "The words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and they are life". So we need to have a grounding in both the written word of God, as well as being filled with and being led by the Ruach HaKodesh or the Holy Spirit. Now, when we think about being filled with the Spirit, we're really talking about something that is supernatural. Because when we say supernatural, what we're doing is we're referring to a dimension that's above the natural order of things. What's the natural order of things? It's the things that we can see, it's the things that we can measure, the things that we can understand with our intellect. But when we speak about the Spirit, this is above the natural law. This is a realm that is supernatural.
So I want to talk with you today about how we can experience more of the spiritual, more of the supernatural. Because without the spiritual and the supernatural, beloved, at work in our life, without being connected to God in the Spirit, which is to say being connected to Him supernaturally, we can't walk with Him. Because the Scripture says, "These that are the sons of God are being led by the Spirit of God". And so all of us need to understand it's important to be walking with, interacting with God's supernatural work in our life. Sometimes people are afraid of the supernatural. Sometimes people just want to... all they want to do is they want to read about the stories of what happened in the lives of the apostles and the patriarchs. It's like they're living their whole life by studying what God did for people in the past.
And it's important to understand how the Lord worked in the lives of Peter and Paul and Elijah and Moses and Abraham. It's important to study how the Lord worked in their lives. But we should also be anticipating the Lord working in our lives supernaturally as well. Well, because this whole book really is a book about God intervening in human history. And when the Lord of heaven intervenes in supernatural in history, supernatural things happen. And so this is something that we all want to be open to. But before I begin teaching about how to experience more of the supernatural, I want to talk about why God wants to do the supernatural in our life. What's the point? It's not just that we're looking for signs or we're looking for wonders, or we're looking for miracles as if those things are an end in themselves. We have to understand why the Lord wants to do the supernatural in our life, why He wants to do for us, for example, what He did for Jacob.
Remember when Jacob was all alone, he was running from Esau, he was in the middle of nowhere. He was so alone, that when he went to sleep he had to use a rock for a pillow. And remember the Lord appeared to him that night. And he appeared to him in a pillar that went from the earth to heaven. And then Jacob saw the angels of God ascending and descending upon that pillar. And Jacob knew in that instance that the Lord was right where he was because he saw this pillar extending from where his head was going all the way up to heaven. And then he saw supernatural activity, divine activity going up and down the pillar connecting him to the heavens. And so Jacob awoke, and he said, "The Lord is in this place," he said, "and I didn't know it".
So how did he come to know that the Lord was with him? How did Jacob come to know that the God of heaven, the God that created the universe was right with him right at that spot where his head was on that pillow? I mean, God was nearer to him than his own breath. How did Jacob come into that revelation? Listen, through a supernatural intervention of God. God supernaturally appeared to Jacob in his sleep. And years later, the Lord appeared to Jacob again and said, "I am the God that appeared to you at Bethel". And so when we study the life of the patriarchs, when we study the life for example of Paul, how Paul was supernaturally knocked off his horse when he was on the way to Damascus to arrest any Jew that believed in Jesus and blinded, Paul's knocked off his horse, he supernaturally blinded, and then Jesus spoke to him.
And Paul spent the rest of his life telling people how Jesus appeared to him. Paul's life was marked and change by a dramatic supernatural encounter. I could go on. But why did God intervene in Jacob's life? And why did the Lord intervene in Paul's life? It was, beloved, for the sake of love. You see, to understand the supernatural, we need to understand that the reason for it is love. The reason the Lord intervenes in our life supernaturally and supernaturally reveals Himself to us, the reason for this is love. We have to understand that the kingdom that we've been called into, the kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of love. And hear this.
Above all else, my friend, think about this, above everything, God wants two things: He wants you to know His love, and He wants to be loved back. God above all else wants us to love him, He wants to experience our love for Him, and He wants to love us back. It all starts, of course, with Him loving us first. God loved us, and therefore He's looking for a response back from us that we would choose to love Him back. But if we strip away everything else to try to understand what it is that God wants, He wants to love us and He wants us to love Him back.
Now, this concept of the Lord wanting us to love Him back it's a bit of a mystery because we question, how is it that the God that has everything? How was it that the supernatural God, that the uncreated God, the all-powerful God, the one that created us and knows everything, how is it that He could take any pleasure out of our loving Him? How could it be that the God that's complete in Himself finds anything of pleasure from our choosing to love Him back? How can we add to this uncreated one's life? But the mystery is somehow we can. Somehow the Lord is moved by our loving Him. Somehow our loving Him touches Him. And so God is looking to bring you and I into an experience, where we're able to open our heart more fully to Him so we could experience His love more deeply in our soul. And He's looking for us, once again, to respond back to Him in love.
Now, if any of you question if it's important to God that we love Him, in other words, that if God get something from it, if God is touched, if we can actually add to God's pleasure. And I know that sounds hard to grasp. How can we add to God's pleasure when He's already complete? But the mystery is, we can. Think about it. Three times Jesus Yeshua said to Peter, "Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me"? In John 14, Yeshua said, "If you love me," He said, "My father and I are going to come and make our home with you and we're going to reveal ourself to you". In the book of Revelation 2, Jesus said to the church there, "I know your deeds, your hard work and perseverance... Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love".
So here's this church that's working hard for Him and they persevered for Him, they're faithful, they're serving. And yet Yeshua said, "Yet I have this against you, that you've lost your first love for me". So that should answer the question: does God really want to be loved? He really does. That's why in Deuteronomy 6:5 we're commanded to love the Lord with all our hearts, strength, soul, and mind. And of course when Yeshua was asked the question of what's the greatest commandment, His response was the same: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength, soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. The challenge, beloved ones, that you and I have is loving a God that we can't see and oftentimes can't feel. That's the challenge.
How do we love a God that we can't see, oftentimes can't feel, can't comprehend? How do we love this invisible God? Well, we're going to talk more about that, but we do it beloved, by choosing to believe that He is, that He's here, by developing our relationship with Him, through talking to Him all the time, and calling Him in to our life by faith. The to our life by faith. Truth is we can't know that God really loves us without a supernatural revelation of it. Again, this series is how to experience the supernatural, how to experience more of the supernatural. And we're beginning by talking about love. And when we talk about love, immediately we have to bring in the supernatural. We can declare to everybody: God so loved the world.
But you know what? People won't be moved by that unless the Spirit of the Lord supernaturally imparts the revelation of it to them. Jesus said to Peter, "Peter, who do you say that I am? And Who do the people say that I am"? And Peter said, "Well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah". Then Yeshua said to Peter, "But who do you say that I am"? And Peter said, "You're the Messiah. You're the anointed one. You're the Christ". Yeshua's response to him, "Peter, you're blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father did, who is in heaven". In other words, Peter was brought into the revelation of who this Jesus was through a supernatural revelation the Father gave him.
And in the same way, you and I cannot personally experience directly the love of God unless supernaturally the Spirit imparts the revelation of the Father's love to us. And so we should be hungry for the supernatural. Because we can read the scriptures, But unless the Holy Spirit is supernaturally giving us revelation of the scriptures and applying them to our heart as a sharp living, two-edged sword, all we'll have is religion. We could memorize the whole Bible and still be dead. It's only the supernatural life of the Holy Spirit that brings the scriptures to life and us in such a way that we take a hold of the revelation so that now we're walking with the written word of God in one hand, and the life of the supernatural Spirit in the other hand. It takes the Spirit of God for us to really know how deeply God loves us.
And again, my point has been, that the reason the Lord shows up in our life supernaturally, the reason He's working in our life supernaturally, the reason He wants to work more supernaturally in our life is so that we would know his love. And in knowing His love, we would be able to more fully love Him back. Let me give you a practical experiential example of this. Some time back, I have a daughter in the Lord, and she called me on the phone and she told me "Rabbi," she said-actually, I think she texted it to me, "I had a dream about you last night".
And then she went ahead and shared the dream with me. And I'm going to do the best I can to recount the dream. But the dream was basically this. She said, "Rabbi, You were playing baseball and you were up to bat, and the Father was rejoicing so much when you were hitting that ball. And you were hitting that ball far and you were hitting that ball successfully. But it wasn't so much that Father was rejoicing because you're successfully hitting that ball". She said, "What the Father was rejoicing in so much was just He was enjoying you enjoying the game. He was enjoying you enjoying yourself as you're hitting that ball". And I thought, "Wow, that's like really different". I never really thought that God takes pleasure when I'm taking pleasure in something. It was like, you know, God is so holy, He so distinct that it's just like it was a hard thought to take in. She said, "The Father was just so delighting watching you play ball. He was just so enjoying you enjoying yourself as you're up to bat hitting that ball. Like He was right with you delighting over you".
And I thought about it and I said, "Wow, that's really something, that's really unique and true. I never really even had that thought before". And it was like it was so new to me and it was so unique that it took a while for it to move from my head down into my heart where I could really receive it. But I didn't forget about her dream that she had about me. And I kept thinking about it, and I kept reminding myself about it. And eventually, beloved ones, and the same that I'm sharing for me now it's true of you, eventually it went from my head to my heart where I began to realize more fully that when I go to work every day, God is enjoying me going to work for Him. He's right here with me.
As I'm going about my business, handling life, handling responsibilities, trying to navigate everything, Father Yeshua is right here with me in the spirit actually enjoying me using the gifts and talents He's given me for Him. Now, why would I share that with you? Because the same thing, my beloved friend in the faith, is true for you. Father really delights over you. I know it's hard to take in, but He really does. He really enjoys you. If you're a grandmother, for example, and you're, you know, taking pleasure in your grandchild, as you're taking pleasure in your grandchild, Father and Jesus are taking pleasure in you as you're taking pleasure in your grandchild. I know it's hard to fathom this.
As you're doing your devotional in the morning, or whenever, struggling to understand what God is saying to you, Jesus is so close to you that He's actually enjoying you struggling and being challenged to try to understand. Whatever it is we're walking through in life, the Spirit of the Lord is right with us enjoying us as we're overcoming. Even us we're falling and failing and struggling and getting up again, Father is right with us cheering us, loving us, knowing that in the end we're going to prevail. And He's enjoying our struggle, beloved, through every part of the process. God delights over you. And so because He does delight over you and I, He'll continue to reveal Himself to us supernaturally. And we have to have our antennas up. How does He reveal Himself to us supernaturally? I'm going to be talking about that as we go forward in this series. But we need to be paying attention, first of all.
Remember, Jesus said, "I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and opens up and lets me in..." So Jesus is knocking, but evidently, not everybody is hearing. The Scripture says in the book of Revelation 2 and 3 seven times, "He that has an ear to hear, let him hear". In other words, God is speaking, but are we picking up His voice? Because to the degree that we can be open to and receptive to and be aware of what He's doing in our life, to that degree we're going to be impacted and propelled in His supernatural love. And so the purpose of this series is to activate you, to help you, number one, know how much God loves you, how present He is with you, and how actively He is seeking to communicate to you in your life.
Now, granted, beloved, we don't always feel God. And I don't want to misrepresent my own walk with God. I don't always feel God at all. But there's enough times in my life where the Lord makes Himself known that I keep going, putting one foot in front of the other even when I don't feel Him because I know that He's here. So I'm praying for you and unbelieving that through the course of this series, experiencing the supernatural, God is going to elevate us all into a deeper connection with Him, and we're going to begin to experience His love and supernatural power in our life in an ever fuller way. So, Father, I bless every soul right now under this teaching. Father, I ask you to bring us all up to a higher place of revelation in You, to a higher discovery of your love for us and of the supernatural power of Your Spirit that's at work in each one of our lives. Beloved one, Baruch Hashem, God bless you, and shalom.